Banish Bloatware by Rooting Your Android Phone With Cyanogenmod

According to blogs and internet commenters everywhere, “rooting” your Android smartphone — essentially installing a new operating system on it — is a panacea for any problem you might be having on the device. Historically, rooting hasn’t necessarily been a very user-friendly process. But Cyanogenmod, the most popular free Android fork, just made the whole thing a lot easier.

Cyanogenmod has long been a popular alternative OS for Android handsets. Many of the proprietary Google elements have been stripped out and replaced with open source alternatives. There are a lot of reasons why someone might want to root their phone: You can install apps your carrier hasn’t approved, like software that turns your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Although Android is already customizable, there are certain system-level tweaks you need a rooted handset to activate. Cyanogenmod is a mature Android skin in its own right. And rooted phones are purported to be a lot faster. But what most people rooting their phone want is to get rid of bloatware crap: See ya later, HTC Sense! Take a hike, Touchwiz!

Cyanogen is transforming itself from a hacker’s hobby into a real company. It recently received $7 million in funding from a venture capital firm. Since it’s hard to build a sturdy business on nerds installing files they downloaded on forums, their first product is an app — currently in the Google Play store — that makes it so simple to install Cyanogenmod, even an iOS user can do it.

Here’s how it works: Download the Cyanogenmod Installer from Google Play. It’ll take you through two prompts and tell you exactly what settings to change. You need to activate USB debugging, for instance. After that, you plug your Android tablet or phone into a Windows computer (sorry Mac users, you’ll have to wait) and download the second installer from get.cm. Run through the prompts, and you have a newly rooted, fresh Cyanogenmod-running device. We tried it in the WIRED offices with a Nexus 7, and it took less than 10 minutes for the whole process.

Of course, this process may still void your warranty, and if you didn’t backup your files, they’ll be gone. I suppose there’s always the specter of bricking your device while flashing a custom operating system. But if you’re sick of your crappy Android phone and you want to give it a good refresh, you’re not just limited to changing a few settings — it’s actually pretty easy to change the entire operating system.